Reed-Solomon codes are used in a wide variety of applications, such as in disk drive systems. For example, when Reed-Solomon encoded data is read back from a disk or other storage media, error and erasure processing is applied to the data that is read. One type of approach is to divide up erasure and error processing by first removing the erasures and then performing error-only decoding. Another approach is to handle or otherwise process errors and erasures in a unified manner or otherwise together, rather than in separate processes or steps. It would be desirable to develop new techniques that are related to the second approach where errors and erasure are processed in a unified manner. For example, it would be desirable if new techniques and/or systems were developed that have improved critical path.